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Beauty Hoarder Problems – Part 4: Countless Back-Ups

Hi there! If you read my blog, you know I’m a beauty and toiletries hoarder. I have too much of everything. I have boxes under the bed, boxes next to bed, the bathroom cabinets are full (and I doubt the stuff in there accounts for even 0.5% of what I have), two of the kitchen cupboards are filled with beauty products and toiletries, and I have more stuff in bags in my closet. If you think I have a few hundred products, think again. I have about 1,400 nail polishes alone! But the craziness doesn’t end here…
Like every other beauty hoarder who’s serious about beauty hoarding, I’ve accumulated an impressive stash of back-ups. I know, lots of people buy back-ups of products they like. But only true beauty hoarders buy back-ups of untested products that they might like. And only true beauty boarders buy their cosmetics in bulk!

The pic above shows 6 Sally Hansen flakie toppers. I found these at one of the Poundstores (probably Poundworld), and I liked them so much that I bought all the bottles I could find that day. I think I may have more of these flakie toppers – but I couldn’t be bothered to go through my entire stash…

The 6 lipliners in the pic above are Rimmel lipliners – and they’re all the same colour – ‘Allure’ (I’ll review this one tomorrow). I like brownish lip colours (not too dark, though) so I bought these lipliners from a trustworthy end-of-line retailer who offered 10 lipliners for £5.99. Where are the other 4 lipliners? I’ve got one in my handbag, and the remaining three are most likely in one of the bags in the closet…
But I don’t just have lots of small make-up items. No! I also hoard big and bulky toiletries. The body butters in the pic above are full-size products. The Boots Extracts Rosehip butters are 200ml each, the Mela body butters are 300ml each. I have many more body butters and many more back-ups. And don’t get me started on shower gels or on my insane stash of Herbal Essences Classics hair products…

So yeah, having multiple back-ups of multiple products can be a problem. We moved house once because it felt like our place was shrinking – when in fact the back-up products took over… It was that bad that, at times, I was wondering whether the products were breeding! 😀

The big question is… how can I get on top of the back-ups? Well, I have to stop buying back-ups! I haven’t bought much over the past few weeks – and I don’t intend to let things spiral out of control again. At the moment I’m enjoying the products I have – and I hope it’ll stay this way. Wish me luck!

Are you a beauty and / or toiletries hoarder too? Kathy, Stashy and Chris, I know you’re with me. But is there anyone else who’d like to confess? Feel free to comment if you want to. And thanks for stopping by!

33 thoughts on “Beauty Hoarder Problems – Part 4: Countless Back-Ups”

Thanks for calling me out! 😆
I know this all too well but I did get rid of a bunch of my backups last year! I totally hear you on the temptation to buy multiples of things that I haven’t even tried – what the heck is up with that?! That doesn’t even make any sense!
I’ve been chipping away at a lot of my backups in the past couple of years by a 3-prong approach:
1) using them up
2) giving them away
3) stop buying them
Tada! 😉

I like your 3-prong approach. It’s like “The simple 3-step guide to happiness!”

By the way, I’m in the process of going through my entire stash, just to look for products I have too many back-ups of, and products I don’t think I’ll ever get around to try. So far I have de-stashed 110 new and unopened products (including dozens of single eyeshadows, 10 eye palettes, toiletries) and 15 part-used fragrances, and I only filled up 3 shoe boxes! It’s so frustrating how little a difference it makes! But I’ll continue to sort through the stuff, and once it’s done, I’ll pass these products on to a women’s shelter. I hope the ladies will enjoy the freebies. 🙂

That’s a great thing you’re doing! I did that before – here they only accept unopened items for the shelters so I donated a bunch of body care. I know they truly appreciate the donations – most people donate clothing but people don’t think about toiletries.

Some of the charities here only accept sealed items (I mean it! They wouldn’t accept shower gels), others say ‘if you’d give it to a friend, we’ll take it’.

This time I’ll be donating all sorts of stuff to a shelter that confirmed it’s happy to take part-used fragrances (all of them are sprays) off my hands. All the other products that I’ll give away are new and unused.

I understand why some of the charities and shelters have a ‘new stuff only’ policy. I can imagine that they’ve had to throw out many disgusting “donations”, i.e. part-used mascaras, part-used eyeshadows, part-used lipglosses, part-used face cream pots… ugh, I’m gagging!

Anyway, I like to donate beauty products to charities. I just have way too much stuff (what else is new…), and I think it’s better to “share” now than having to throw out hundreds of untouched old products in 10 years from now! 😀

I think I have to confess to this too. I have about six or seven hat boxes of bath and body products, no duplicates but some are just to have them and I’ve had some for years. Then I have the gift sets still unused and my things in the shower room, I should really go through and make a list. I normally join a using up topic in a forum I visit and it’s a great way of making me think twice about any purchases. As far as makeup goes I’m a big eyeshadow palette hoarder, I have way more than I need and so many neutrals I’ll probably never use them up.

I think I’m the biggest (functioning) hoarder – because I never met a bigger hoarder in real life. But then… my neighbour, my workmate or the office cleaning lady might be just as bad. 😀

OK… I think my shower and bath products would last me for 4+ years. I have a near endless supply of Herbal Essences Classics products. I have at least another 12 to 15 shampoo and conditioner combos from different brands. Body butters? 60+. At least 25 face creams. Several serums and eye creams. 100+ face masks. About 100 lipsticks, about 50 lipliners. About 50 eyeliners (mainly Essence), hundreds of single eyeshadows and eye palettes, 15 blushes (that’s not too bad, I think) and I think I have around 40 facial cleansers and toners… I also have unopened gift sets from eons ago… so yes, I feel your pain! xx

I don’t join in on these finish-up thingies (project pan and the likes) because I wouldn’t even be able to select a few products for the challenge. 12 products in 12 weeks? I don’t think that 120 products in 12 week would make much of a difference to my stash. I think it’s great these challenges exist, and I think it’s awesome so many people take part (and achieve something!). But it’s just not for me.

By the way, I’m in the process of going through my entire stash, just to look for products I have too many back-ups of, and products I don’t think I’ll ever get around to try. So far I have de-stashed 110 new and unopened products (including dozens of single eyeshadows, 10 eye palettes, toiletries) and 15 part-used fragrances, and I only filled up 3 shoe boxes! It’s so frustrating! But I’ll continue to sort through the stuff, and once it’s done I’ll pass these products on to a women’s shelter. I hope the ladies will enjoy the freebies. 🙂

I could never pick certain things to finish, I tend to dip I and out if everything I have depending on what I feel like rather than focussing on one thing, especially with makeup. On the one I post in it’s either a list of everything I have or post when I gain or finish things so it’s a good way to keep track of what I have and posting that I’ve gained something always makes me think twice before buying. Since starting it my bath and body products buying has gone way down, I think I used to have twice the things I do now, though my buying kind of transferred to makeup, lol, so it only partially worked. There’s just so many things I want to try and I end up buying backups of limited edition things and then finding something new to try instead. I’ve been tempted by those wholesale accounts but I’m always worried they’ll be fake products. Though it’s normally the sets with ten different colours in a product rather than of the exact same thing. That’s a great way to get rid of things you won’t use and I’m sure they’ll appreciate them.

I really like that the list is helping you managing your toiletries shopping!

About wholesale… there are many specialist end of line retailers and wholesellers. Many of them sell imported discontinued products from mainland Europe (Manhattan Cosmetics, Astor, etc) and they’ll sell Revlon, Miss Sporty or Rimmel products in bulk as well.

But I’d definitely not buy anything MAC or Benefit from any random seller. I’d only buy those brands from reputable sellers (= department stores and the likes).

Me too. I spent $40 at the Bath and Body Works Semi Annual sale even though I knew I have bottles upon bottles in my linen closet. If I stopped buying shower gels and lotions now I probably have enough for a year. Or more…

I don’t stock up at all but I really wish I could because i run out of things I use all the time. And I don’t like making several trips to the store lol. I think hoarding is ok to an extent but wow 1,400 nail polishes you say? How do you even go through all of those? Lol. I would love to see how you store them because that’s an insane amount! I have about 20 and I think that’s too much. Then again, I hardly get to do my nails.

I hoard nail polishes, other women hoard lipsticks or eye palettes. I do my nails every 2 to 4 days, and I can promise you that finishing a nail polish is 100 times easier than finishing a regular 12-shades eye palette. 🙂

True that. If you do your nails often I can see how you’d go through the bottle fairly quickly.
Tell me about it! Hitting the pan must takes years! LOL I have so far done my best to not hoard anything LOL I’m only buying what I need as I run out LOL. I’m tempted to buy eyeshadow pans but of shades I don’t yet have..

See, that’s why you’re not an out-of-control hoarder. I know that there are dozens of awesome new products every month – and life experience has taught me that I will neglect products I already have for newer products. But I still continue to buy more… it’s a vicious circle…

Now thats a lot O_O I usually only have backups of things I like or maybe when I forgot I already bought it… (trying really hard at least… but then there are special offers and nice packagings and good reviews and all that) as for toiletries and stuff I have enought to not buy for 4-6 months… yet I buy them again each month, wondering when I will reach that point of having enough for a year. definitely prepared for a zombie apocalypse…

Yes, THIS!!!!
This is exactly how I ended up with too much of everything!
I just need to stock up on canned vegetables and I could consider myself prepared for the zombie apocalypse. And I wouldn’t just survive it – I’d survive it smelling of roses looking like an opera singer (with all that make-up…). 😀

Stop buying stuff and use what you’ve already got!
I’ve implemented a 3 out / 1 in policy and so far it’s been great. I can buy 1 product for every 3 products I finish, which is a nice reward. But I also know that my stash is shrinking – and it’s great!